It’s not so much a solo as a beautiful texture. That’s what I always strive to add in pop settings. It’s not about leather pants, walking the bar, dark sunglasses or cool-cat-hats. It’s about pure tone, texture, emotion and beauty. (To me, anyway.) No cheesy vibrato or cheap parlor tricks. Since the moment I discovered […]
#InTheShed
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Playing All the Time
I just had a great phone conversation with my old high school friend and saxophone mentor. We reminisced about how much playing we did back then: practicing early before school, listening–critically–to music during the 30 minute commute to school, scribbling out licks during history class to test out when we got to jazz band in […]
Practicing Sax in the Car
I learned this trick from one of my students. He lives in France and says he’s taken to practicing sax in the car while stuck in traffic on his daily commute! Last night I played a gig with some LA-based musicians and the music was demanding (of the funk, fusion, church type…in fact, the hardest […]
“I Can Always Tell Who’s Transcribing and Who’s Not.” – Avishai Cohen on Learning the Language of Jazz
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Avishai Cohen, the brilliant trumpeter, please, do some homework. He’s incredible. I had the good fortune to attend Berklee during the same years Avishai was there (along with his sister Anat Cohen; a very talented saxophonist and clarinetist) and hearing him play always motivated me to improve (or […]
Conversation with Myron Walden – Part 1
Recently I had the chance to sit down with saxophonist and composer Myron Walden before his performance in Los Angeles with the Brian Blade Fellowship (one of my favorite bands of all time) and talk, one saxophonist to another, about playing, composing, band-leading, and life as a jazz musician in 2011. I’ve admired Myron’s music […]